


The Company We Keep

by cosmiceverafter



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bravery, Carnival, Firefighters, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Mentions of alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, Teamwork, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmiceverafter/pseuds/cosmiceverafter
Summary: The trio Mateo, Paul, and Marjan bond in an unlikely way as they remember you can get by with a little help from your friends.
Relationships: Mateo Chavez & Marjan Marwani, Mateo Chavez & Paul Strickland, Paul Strickland & Marjan Marwani
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	The Company We Keep

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for 911 Lone Star Week -Day 2: Dynamics (Prompt - I’ll be by your side)
> 
> I love this show, so I was thrilled to participate in the event this week! I'm all for the friendships and the different dynamics of the show. I needed more with Mateo, Marjan, and Paul! 
> 
> Thank you to the Junkyard for your ongoing support and encouragement; it means the world to me. Enjoy!

**The Company We Keep  
  
**

“So where are we going?” Mateo asked as he stared curiously out of Marjan’s car.

“It’s a surprise,” Marjan replied with a twinkle in her eye. Mateo knew that look—she used it every time she ran into a situation that was above dangerous. She was honestly the bravest woman he’d ever met.

Mateo did a fake pout, _“Fine….”_

“Awe, throw the Probie a bone, Mar,” Paul chuckled in the backseat as he shook his head. _He had passed the test, but the nickname stuck._ “You know he’s not big with surprises.”

The three of them had the same shift off at the 126, and before Mateo had been able to make his way home, Marjan insisted that he got in her car. The rest was left up in the air. Paul decided to join along as well. It was often that the three of them hung out without the rest of the fire fam, so whatever was in store, it was a treat Mateo welcomed.

She shrugged, “I know.” Marjan looked over at him, “But he’ll love this one.”  
  


*******

  
She was right. He did _love_ this one.

The trio stood in front of the entrance of the Austin State Fair. It was a huge carnival with lots of food, games, and rides. Mateo always wanted to go to one with friends growing up but never had the opportunity as he had worked double shifts his entire life to make ends meet.

He wanted to give Marjan the biggest hug imaginable. As if she knew what he was thinking she shook her head, “No no. Save your cuddles for the stuffed teddy bear I win for you.”

_“Deal.”_

The three of them started at one end of the carnival and worked their way through. Every booth. Every snack. Every ride… even the twisty ones that made Paul a bit sick.

“Ferris wheel next!” Marjan exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands. It wasn’t often that she let loose like this. Usually, she was always ready for a challenge to get the job done. In a way, Mateo felt as though she needed to prove something not only to the world but to herself. So it was nice to see this side of her. The giddy child at heart.

The Ferris wheel slowly made its way up high into the sky. Then it stopped. They had a beautiful view of Austin.

“I think I see 126!” Mateo pointed towards the distance.

“You truly love it there, don’t you? You bring the firehouse up every 5 minutes it seems, and on our day off nonetheless,” Marjan replied, ruffling his hair up slightly as you would a younger sibling.

He nodded thinking back on his past, “Of course I do. It’s truthfully the only home I’ve ever known.”

“What do you mean?” Paul inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve never really opened up about my past… but it wasn’t good. When we got here, things were bad. My father was an alcoholic and… well, he hurt my mom a lot growing up. Until one day she left. Left for good. Well, a teacher, the one teacher that understood that I learned differently from other children, recognized what the bruises meant. I suppose she heard enough excuses over her career. She uh… saved me. She made some calls, and yeah, they took me away. I think they looked the other way from where I came from. It probably felt bad for me or something. I was sure I’d be deported. But I grew up in a few foster homes after that. Most of them weren’t very good, but the last one was fine until I became 18 and I got out on my own.” He exhaled and realized he had been holding his breath, for a long, long time.

“Oh man, Mateo...I’m _so_ sorry,” Paul replied sadly looking down at his hands. “We didn’t mean to pry.” Marjan nodded in agreement, a look of sadness also washing over her beautiful face.

“No, please, I don’t want you to pity me,” Mateo replied quickly, not wanting them to now walk on eggshells around him. “I’m stronger because of it.”

“We don’t pity you, ‘Teo,” Marjan said solemnly, grabbing his hand tightly. “But we care for you and hearing about your upbringing, well, it hurts.

He nodded realizing that love and pity meant two different things. It was sometimes hard to rewire the damage your brain had built up over the years. “Thank you. But to go back to your question, the 126 is my everything. It’s why I was willing to do anything to stay, even with dyslexia and well… the threat of being deported.” He paused to look up at them both, “You all are the first true family I’ve ever known.”

Paul moved closer to him and pulled him into his arms. Marjan leaned forward as well. They all embraced and Mateo smiled at the feeling of love.

When the pod they were sitting in lurched and tilted drastically to the one side they all laughed and broke apart.

“We’ll love you from over here!” Marjan laughed holding onto the sides tightly.

That was just fine with Mateo.

*******

“What a day!” Mateo said with a huge grin as they made their way out. “We should bring everyone here soon… maybe do a fundraiser or something.”

“Not a bad idea, Probie!” Paul agreed as he licked his vanilla ice-cream cone. “I’m sure Cap’ would have a ball here!”

Marjan rolled her eyes, “I’m pretty sure he’d be a bit nervous the roller coaster would mess up his perfectly arranged hair!”

Their laughter was cut short when they heard screaming in the distance. They all focused and immediately stepped into action scoping out their surroundings.

In the distance, a roller coaster had come off of its track. Luckily it wasn’t too high up, but the coaster’s front was now hanging off of the track completely.

The three of them went running over as Paul called up the 126 to get them there and fast!

Everyone was gathered around watching the sight above, covering their mouths in fear. What had been a fun outing quickly was turning into a nightmare.

Mateo didn’t think, he just acted. He saw rope sitting by a large box on the side of the ride. Grabbing it, he took off.

His body was moving at the speed of light and he could hear Marjan calling his name behind him. He made his way up the track and shimmied up as high as he could. Good thing he was a master at climbing trees; all those years of practice were coming in handy it seemed. Mateo was finally able to get in front of the cars.

“Help us!” A little girl with blonde pigtails cried out, tears rolling down her cheeks. _“Please!_ I’m scared!” Of course, it was children in the front cart. It didn’t seem like their parents were in the back of them.

“I’m going to, I promise,” he called out. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let anything happen to y'all.” He tied the rope the best he could around the side of the car, and then moved ahead to tie it to the track.

“Mateo!” He looked over and wasn’t surprised at all to see Marjan right there behind him. “Good thinking. We’ve gotta get the front secure so it doesn’t pull the rest of it down like a caterpillar.”

“Exactly what I was thinking!” Mateo looked down at Paul who was talking to what looked like ride mechanics.

“He got them to turn it off. The worker said there was clearly a malfunction in the front car’s wheels.” Marjan wiped the sweat from her forehead, as she secured her hijab, “The rest are on their way.”

“Good,” Mateo nodded, “That’s good.” He looked back at the car dangling off the track. “We’ve gotta pull it up, or at least get the people out!”

“We don’t have the proper gear for that! We’ve gotta wait.”

He knew she was right, but he promised that little girl. Mateo knew what it was like to have broken promises… he wasn’t about to become one of those people.

Mateo moved back down and reached for the little girl’s hand. She was crying so hard and her brother was trying to help calm her down, fear masking his face as well as he held on tightly.

“How old are you?” Mateo asked.

She looked over at him and grabbed his hand tightly. “I just turned 7.”

“Wow! You’re a big girl. And I can tell you two are very brave.”

“My brother Thomas is 11, but he’s afraid of spiders.”

Thomas frowned, “I am not, Sylvie! I just don’t like that they can hide in dark places.” He moved his glasses up.

“You know what,” Mateo replied with a smile, “I’m not a fan of spiders either!”

Thomas returned the smile and Sylvie giggled wiping her face. “They’re my friends, like Charlotte!”

“From Charlotte’s Web,” her brother said, clearly trying to distract himself from looking at the ground below.

“You might be the bravest out of all of us, Sylvie.”

Sylvie nodded, “I had a big birthday cake with yellow frosting! It was a Moana birthday party. She is my favorite!”

“That sounds so much fun!” Mateo said looking down slightly. He could see in the distance that his team had just arrived. Thank God. He knew Judd drove fast and was thankful for it.

It couldn’t have been better timing, because the coaster lurched forward, the noise of steel squealing loudly.

 _“Ah!”_ the children screamed loudly.

“No no, you’re okay! Remember, just remember how brave you are!” Mateo looked back and Marjan, who was tightly holding on to the rope, smiled encouragingly back at him and nodded for him to continue. He saw Paul now getting up higher with the help of the boom lift.

Mateo moved his attention back to the little girl whose eyes were filling back up with tears, “Remember in Moana how she went on an adventure all by herself? She saved her people and her land. She was scared, but she did it!”

“I remember,” Sylvie sniffled, biting her lip and huddling closer to her brother.

“Sylvie, you’re just like Moana,” Mateo grinned holding her a bit closer. “You went on an adventure and you’re going to be just fine.”

Paul was moving right next to them and nodded to Mateo. Mateo nodded back and grabbed the tool that would release the children out of the front.

“Okay, I’m going to help you out, alright? And you get to go on one more ride with my best friend Paul!” Mateo pointed towards Paul and he smiled and waved to the kids. “We’re firefighters who were trained for this!”

“Firefighters are so cool!” Thomas exclaimed, “I did a school report about them!”

“That’s awesome, Thomas. You’ll have to come to visit us at Station 126 sometime, okay?” Thomas nodded excitedly. When the coaster lurched again, Mateo knew they needed to move. He got the tool and called out, “Marjan you have it secure?”

“Confirmed!”

He wrapped the harness around Sylvie and reached over to Thomas, with Paul’s help. Mateo tried to ignore the fact that the roller coaster was still moving slowly and that they had opened the life net below… just in case. He himself had to be brave for them.

The 126 was helping unload people from the bottom and were cruising along. His main priority though was the two dangling in front of him.

“They’re secure!” Mateo called out to Paul and Marjan. “I’m going to release.”

“Wait wait!” Sylvie cried out looking down with horror.

“Sylvie, look at me!” The little girl looked up, “Be _brave_.”

When that didn’t seem to help, he heard Marjan start to sing, _“I've been staring at the edge of the water. Long as I can remember, never really knowing why.”_

Sylvie’s head turned quickly over to look at Marjan and she smiled, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Then Paul even joined in, _“Every turn I take, every trail I track. Every path I make, every road leads back. To the place I know, where I can not go, where I long to be.”_

Finally, it was Sylvie’s turn, _“See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me and no one knows how far it goes!_ ” As she sang, Mateo took this opportunity to pop the bar off and he and Paul grabbed the two children.

Paul lifted Thomas into the lift, and Sylvie hugged Mateo tightly before she scooted over to Paul herself. Once she was safely inside, Paul nodded with a smile at Mateo and he heard Marjan exhale in relief.

When they were all down and safe, the ride was officially closed down. The workers got a large crane to get the roller coaster back on. The crowd was still gathering but cheering when Mateo and Marjan walked over. He nodded and smiled—it felt _good._

Thomas and Sylvie sat with them until their mother came rushing over crying. She kept saying “Thank you, thank you. You saved my babies!”

“They’re my superheroes!” Sylvie said with a smile and a wave, before walking over to the EMT’s to get checked out.

This was what made it _all_ worth it.

Their Captain came over and patted Mateo on the back looking at the three of them, “I’m impressed with you all. You did some good work there. Especially when it wasn’t your shift.”

TK laughed and shook his head, “Work follows us everywhere.”

Mateo smiled proudly, “This isn't work, it’s the most rewarding gift.”

“Awe, Probie is getting a bit sentimental,” Judd called out with a wink. He ruffled Mateo’s hair slightly.

“Nah,” Marjan said wrapping her arm around him, “He’s just speaking our truth.”

Paul nodded and clapped him on the back, “Amen to that, brother.”

*******

  
On the way back home, the three of them were back in Marjan’s car heading back to the 126. They laughed and told stories about the events of the day.

“All I know,” Marjan said looking in the rearview mirror, “is that I’m so grateful you decided to pick Moana for our movie night.”

“For real, ‘Teo,” Paul agreed, rubbing his face. “Lord knows I wouldn’t have been able to recite those lyrics otherwise.”

From the backseat, Mateo started humming. Then he sang, _“I can lead with pride, I can make us strong!”_

As they all laughed and sang the rest of the song, Mateo looked back-and-forth between the two of them. They _were_ strong. He was so grateful to have them by his side, knowing he couldn’t have done it without them, and never would have to.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this fic! Comments and kudos are always appreciated! Thank you.


End file.
